The invention relates to power systems and methods and, more particularly, to power systems and methods for applications such as data centers and telecommunications installations.
Several different approaches have been used to provide power in mid- to large-scale data center and telecommunications applications. Some approaches involve coupling the output of a relatively large uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to a wall-mounted breaker panel or a rack- or cabinet-type power distribution unit (PDU), which includes a plurality of breakers that provide power to plural branch circuits. Respective racks or other groupings of electronic equipment, such as servers, routers, switches, storage devices and the like, may be served by respective ones of these branch circuits. An example of such an implementation is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,967,283 to Rasmussen et al. In other applications, respective individual UPSs may be mounted in respective racks that hold computer equipment, such as servers, with the UPS providing power to the equipment in the rack directly or via a rack-mounted PDU.